Actress Jaimie Alexander has candidly shared that a life-threatening event was the catalyst for confronting her struggle with alcoholism.

The 41-year-old star, best known for her role in Thor, revealed in a recent Substack post that a bout of appendicitis during an unsettling getaway with a new partner made her recognize that her habitual drinking had turned into a dependency.

Alexander recounted that this pivotal moment took place in 2018, right in the middle of her five-season stint on the hit crime series Blindspot, which captivated audiences from 2015 to 2020.

As she explained, she had just embarked on a budding romance with a charming man when they decided to escape the hustle and bustle of New York City for a brief retreat upstate, as he was interested in exploring property options.

Their plans, however, were thwarted by a fierce snowstorm that blanketed the region, making their return to the city impossible.

Undeterred by the weather, Alexander and her new flame embraced the unexpected change of plans by cozying up in a rented cabin for the night, accompanied only by his adorable three-legged dog. 

The actress Jaimie Alexander, 41, revealed in a Substack post this week how she only realized she was struggling with alcoholism after almost dying from appendicitis in 2018; pictured November 12 in NYC

The actress shared this photo taken after she had surgery 

But instead of being a romantic getaway, the extended trip turned into ‘absolute hell’ after the snowfall prevented the two from going out to stock up on supplies. 

‘Sure, we had a few bottles of water and some snacks… but do you know what we didn’t have? ALCOHOL,’ Alexander wrote.

Alexander wrote that she started to ‘panic’ because she couldn’t find any booze in the rental property, and she hadn’t brought her flask with her. 

‘Honestly, I had no clue how I was going to survive the night sober while pretending everything was fine in front of my new boyfriend,’ she wrote.

Her desperation was particularly awkward, as the new man she was seeing was totally sober.

The Kyle XY actress managed to make it through the night, though her boyfriend noticed that she seemed ‘frazzled.’

The weather had calmed down enough by the following evening that they were able to make the drive back to her apartment in Brooklyn, where all she could think about was ‘getting home and pouring bourbon down’ her throat.

But Alexander recounted feeling ‘dizzy in a way that felt dangerous’ once she got home late that night. She poured herself a tall glass of bourbon — neat — but then for some reason couldn’t bring herself to down it. 

Alexander was drinking daily, but when she was snowed in on a trip upstate in New York with her new — sober — boyfriend, she panicked about not having any booze around; pictured on The Blindspot

‘I remember feeling like some kind of magnetic force was separating me from the bourbon,’ she explained. 

The next day, Alexander woke feeling ‘shaky,’ and at work she started to feel ‘irritable and unsteady.’

Her workout that evening came to a halt because of her trainer’s concerns.

‘You don’t look so good,’ Alexander recalled her trainer saying. ‘You’re off balance, and you’re even more pale than usual.’

Before bed, she again tried to have a glass of whisky, only to stop herself for an unknown reason. 

‘It felt like someone was physically pulling the glass out of my hands,’ Alexander wrote.

It became clear that something was wrong with her the following day, when she started to suffer from a stomach ache that simple antacids couldn’t resolve.

An on-set nurse offered to massage her stomach, but after hours of alternating that with Tums, Alexander wasn’t feeling any better.

They made it back to Brooklyn the next night, but Alexander found that for some reason she couldn’t drink, even though she wanted to; pictured in April 2024 in NYC

While filming The Blindspot that week, Alexander was overcome with intense stomach pain. A doctor on set wondered if it could be ruptured ovarian cysts, but a visit to her OB-GYN confirmed that she was suffering from appendicitis; pictured in NYC in July 2023

‘By lunchtime, I could barely stand,’ she wrote, adding that the pain had expanded from her the top of her abdomen to her lower right side. 

Alexander wrote that she was alarmed enough to ask for a doctor to visit the set, and he asked if she had ovarian cysts, which could have possible ruptured. 

After her pain got worse, to the point that she was ‘curled up in the fetal position’ on the floor of her trailer, Alexander had to be taken to her OB-GYN’s office, which was ‘when the contractions started.’ 

Alexander described it as the ‘worst pain’ she had ever experienced, despite having suffered a litany of injuries throughout her life.

The worsening symptoms cued in her doctor on what was going on, and he ordered her driver to take her to the hospital immediately instead of waiting for an ambulance to arrive.

‘Your appendix is rupturing. If they don’t remove it right away, I’ll come do it myself,’ she recalled him saying. 

Tests at the hospital revealed her appendix had already ruptured, and she was beginning to suffer from sepsis, so doctors prepped her for surgery. 

Alexander recalled thinking that she was ‘dying’ as she waited for someone to move her to the operating table. 

The Thor star was rushed to the hospital for surgery. While waiting for the OR, a voice in her head asked her if she was ready to die

But at that moment, all the fear that had been building up evaporated and was replaced with a sense of ‘love.’ 

‘I was free,’ she recalled thinking.

Alexander remembered having a conversation with a voice in her head as she mused about whether she was ready to die. 

But after she decided that she wanted to stick around on earth, the voice responded, ‘Then you can never drink again.’

Alexander wrote that sense of ‘pure clarity’ washed over her, and she finally realized the extent of her addiction to alcohol.

Alexander’s surgery went well, and she was released from the hospital five days later.

The illness that could have killed her instead became ‘exactly what I needed to become aware of how I was living and what I needed to do to change so that I could have a shot at reaching my full potential.’ 

Alexander noted that she turned to her boyfriend for help maintaining her newfound sobriety, and it was he who pushed her to go to Alcoholics Anonymous meetings. 

Since that time seven years earlier, Alexander said she has been able to remain sober.